Mathematics

This project will produce material, in the form of lesson plans, instructional guides and practice sheets, appropriate for a college-level foundational mathematics course and will monitor its effectiveness during an implementation at on Ontario college in the fall semester, 2009. Once completed, the material will become part of JUMP's growing body of course materials. It is hoped that the material will prove effective in addressing the mathematics requirement of college students and will be adopted at more institutions, fulfilling JUMP's goal of "[promoting] a numerate society".

The goal of this research project is to develop a management toolkit that will enable First Nation fisheries managers to select and employ appropriate mathematical population models based on management objectives and available data. The primary societal contribution of this research program is the development of a toolkit that will immediately enable access to ecological risk assessment (ERA) tools that target the appropriate level of biological organization (i.e. populations) in a transparent, accountable, and scientifically defensible manner.

Aptamers are single stranded DNA molecules that due to their sequence bind to specific target molecules. The process for the identification of aptamers for a specific target involves exposure of a large number of random sequences to the target followed by selection of sequences that bind. This process requires several several selection cycles for success. Selection is based on two overlapping factors, strengh of binding and specificity of binding.

Teck Metals Ltd. operates one of the world’s largest integrated lead-zinc smelting operations out of Trail, British Columbia. Every year, they report on atmospheric emissions of zinc and other contaminants through Environment Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). The purpose of this internship is to extend an existing inverse Gaussian plume model for estimating the emissions of zinc from point sources. The input to the algorithm is a collection of measurements of particulate material deposited on the ground in the area around the Trail smelter.

The research project is to investigate a multi]factor multi]asset extension of the Hestonf93 stochastic volatility model for comprehensive Credit Value Adjustment calculation and Commodity Counterparty Credit Risk methodology. The extended model covers counterparty hazard rates correlated with the underlying and interest rates in order to model wrong]way exposure.

Catalyst Equities is a proprietary day trading firm, which means that they trade stocks with financing arranged by a third party. Currently, trades are made independently by members of the team with some dialogue over projections and decision criteria. In the future, partners want to expand their business to include automated trading, which they have past experience with.

Detection of unexploded ordnances (UXO), or munitions, has many humanitarian benefits. In order to uncover and remove them from an area, their magnetic properties are exploited using a technique to detect them called magnetometry. In order to separate the hazardous UXO from other harmless debris, the proposed project with Sky Research will deal with modeling their magnetic signature and how it changes from the time they are fired, to the time when they penetrate the ground with an impact force.

For this project, the mathematical finance intern will assist in the development and implementation of a new Economic Capital system, a method used by society to produce and distribute goods and services. The internship will also look into the development and implementation of appropriate risk management policies and procedures. The intern will manage the performance of operational tasks related to asset and liability compliance reporting and credit reporting as well as oversee the performance of credit and financial assessments of treasury credit counterparties.

Credit valuation adjustment (CVA) is becoming an integral part of pricing any over-the-counter (OTC) trading portfolio, especially in the light of current market conditions. CVA is the difference between the portfolio values with and without accounting for the possibility of default of trading counterparties. BMO Capital Markets has launched a project to create a front office CVA system that will allow traders to analyze and hedge their credit exposure using adequate and appropriately calibrated models.

PeerFX Inc. provides a peer to peer currency exchange platform that brings the small business client and individuals together and allows them to exchange currencies with each other. Rather than being charged a high spread in a bank, the users save significantly in this transaction system. However, the demand and supply of currencies normally cannot be balanced merely by the clients. PeerFX should exchange the extra supply of currencies for other deficient currencies with a third party, currency exchanges.